Set up for a desktop photo studio

Part 3 of a 6 part series

I'm going to describe a simple desktop photo studio.

Let's first talk about the background that will be seen behind the fly. If you decide to use a busy background, such as an assortment of colored thread spools stacked on dowels on one of those cool multi-stepped wooden racks, be sure that they are far enough away from the fly to be somewhat blurred in the photo.  Otherwise the background will be distracting to the viewer.

I've tried busy backgrounds, but prefer a simple approach. Colored mat board is a good choice if you have access to an art supplier. Mat board is the material that is used for mounting photographs for framing. I like to keep the mat board about 8" to 14" inches behind the fly. You'll have to experiment to find what works best for you. 

A mid-tone background is a good overall choice. I like medium shades of gray, blue, or green.  I buy my mat board online, from American Frame. A 12" x 18" piece should be plenty big enough.

Colored folders work great too. You can pick up colored folders at Staples or W.B. Mason.

Three good colors to use for a background.  Grey and green are mat board. 
The blue is a colored folder. If the grey mat shown here looks a bit off color,
then it is likely that your monitor needs calibration. 
Most monitors are too bright and have a blue color cast.

In the past, I've propped up the mat board vertically using two 12" lengths of 2x4s, one supporting the mat from the front and one from the back. Here I've used four 16 ounce cans from the kitchen (two at each corner, front and back). 

Want to simplify one step further? In the picture below, I have merely leaned the mat up at an angle against a pile of stuff at the back of the desk. The pedestal of the vise will hold it in place.  The angle of the mat actually reduces the reflection on the camera lens from my tying lights.  Plus, it's a great way to hide crap on your tying desk!  Use this system even when you are not planning to photograph your tying steps.  I find the green to be very soothing on the eyes while tying.

Don't want to buy any mat board?  With a one or two clothes pins, clip a colored folder to a piece of corregated cardboard cut from the side of a cardboard box.  All the hopper photos on my Web site were done with this green folder as the background.

For light I like two desk lamps with elbow joints. They are held to the table with C-clamps. You can see the lamp shades in the upper two corners of two of the images above. You can buy them cheaply at Staples. I use this arrangement because it is the same lighting I prefer for tying flies. If I could find higher quality desk lights than these $25 ones, I would buy them. But I have to admit, I haven't looked too hard.  The ones I have don't hold their positions very well, because I can't get the elbow joints tight enough. I sometimes use duct tape to keep the elbows from slipping.

For light bulbs, I use spiral fluorescent bulbs. They are 30 watts. The fluorescent bulbs are nice because they don't heat up. If you use incandescent bulbs, use 100 watts.

A tripod is needed to free up your hands to hold materials.  The one pictured below is made by Sunpak and is the MiniPro Plus/B.  I think the "B" must stand for "ball head", which easily allows you to move the camera around the ball joint for making adjustments.  As of this date (March, 2012) it is selling at Amazon for $20.95.

The G9 allows for a pretty good macro at about 2x zoom at 2" from the subject.  A 2" working distance or more
is needed when tying a fly.  At a 1x zoom this camera has to be too close to the fly, and it is then nearly
 impossible to get light onto the subject.  Take a few moment to do a better job than I did lining up the camera and the fly.

Available on Amazon for about $21 (as of March, 2012).

Next Post: Set up for your camera (for Web use)

Set up for photographing step-by-steps: getting out the camera

Part 2 of a 6 part series

Just about any digital camera will work just fine for photographing flies. To get the most out of a camera it is best to (1) use the macro feature, (2) turn the flash off, and (3) use a custom WB adjustment.  Every camera I've seen has these features, though sometimes the adjustments are deep into the menus. I will explain how I use these settings in a followup blog post.

Recommendation: 

If you are in the market for a new camera, try to find one that is 12-18 months into its production cycle.  At that point in time the price is often discounted by 30-40%.  I think the best places to shop on the Internet for cameras are: Amazon, Adorama, and BHphotovideo. 

For an overall useful every-day point and shoot camera for an outdoor enthusiast, I am a fan of the current line of "tough" cameras.  I own the Panasonic TS3.  This is now a generation old, having been announced in January, 2011.  This meets the 12-18 month parameter described in the above paragraph.  My son just bought one at Amazon for $220.  Now, each of my three children has one. When they came out they were selling for $350.

Being weatherproof, I can take this camera fishing (it will take pictures underwater, too) and skiing (it will operate nicely down to 14F). It is also dustproof and shockproof. It takes videos clips and has a nice zoom range. It has a GPS for tagging your pictures, an altimeter, a compass, and a barometer. Oh, and it has a macro mode and customizable white balance, both of which are needed for good fishing fly photos.

My Old Favorite for Web Photos:

A couple of years ago I sold off my beloved Nikon Coolpix 4500's on Amazon, while it still had reasonable value. I bought the 4500 in 2002 just before this series of split-body cameras was discontinued, and used it for about 7 years.  I remember being excited about the $250 rebate that brought the price down to $750.  Today, in 2012, $750 can buy a whole lot more camera than it did back then.   In fact, if you want to purchase a used sample of this Nikon classic, I see them on Ebay often at under $100.

Arguably, the Coolpix 4500 (and earlier versions) had the best macro available in a non-dSLR camera. But the LCD was hard to see at only 1.8" in diagonal size, and the camera was mostly menu driven. The 4 megapixels made beautiful prints as large as 15" wide, and the files were certainly more than adequate for Web use.  But I never found the user interface particularly user-friendly. I like lots of buttons to directly drive the controls, and the Coolpix 4500 had very few. It also lacked RAW capability and a histogram, both of which are now major priorities for me.

Nikon Coolpix 4500, in closed position

My Current Favorite for Web photos:

My current camera of choice for Web photography is the 12mp Canon G9. The G9 is a discontinued model and is now two generations old; but, used ones are available on Ebay for around $200.  It will shoot in an easy-to-use automatic mode (the green choice on the command dial on the top plate shown below), but also has a full complement of manual control buttons, dials and wheels.

Canon G9 - lens collapses when turned off

Larger Sensor Cameras For Prints:

As good as the G9 is, for fly images that will end up as prints, a camera with a bigger sensor can do wonders. An example is the 16mp Panasonic GH2.  In the picture below I have the GH2 equiped with  30-year old Nikon 55mm macro lens. The extra detail that comes from the bigger sensor (about 4x the squared dimension of either the G9) and a dedicated macro lens is not obvious when viewed on the Web and hardly noticeable even when viewed full size on a computer monitor (about 70-90 dots per inch), but when printed at 200-300 dots per inch the difference is spectacular.

Panasonic GH2 with Nikon 55mm macro lens

Next Post: Setting up the desktop photo studio

Set up for the One Feather Fly: gather all the parts and dusting off the Web site template

Part 1 of a 6 part series

I was shocked to see that it was last May when I published a blog post about the One Feather Fly and promised to prepare step-by-step instructions for this simple fly. The months go by so quickly!  After that blog post, it was fun to receive a few emails from others who get a kick out of tying and using the simplest of flies.

Now, in March, I find myself motivated to get tying and photographing because I am all out of these little delicacies! Unfortunately I find today that I only have two remaining 5/32" gold beadheads. I like to tie in groups of 10 or 12, and this is my favorite size when added to a TMC 3761 size 8 1xl wet fly hook. I'm sure the silver ones I have will work just as well; but they just don't look as good to me. I'll pick up some gold ones tomorrow at the Orvis Store.

10 size 8 TMC3761 hooks and 5/32" gold beads from the local Orvis store.

I'm going to need some nice rump feathers (one per fly) from my Ring Neck Pheasant skin. I'm sure I will find some decent feathers, but the skin has been pretty picked over. The closer the feather looks like blood marabou the better.

Rump feathers are on the left (and this skin has been used a lot)!  Back feathers are on the right.

I found that the last set of step-by-step instructions that I prepared was about four years ago when I used it for the Conehead Combo. I like the template/format I used back then, and will use it for my upcoming step-by-step instructions. Unfortunately and unpredictably a few of the old pages on my Web site sometimes take more time to open in Internet Explorer than I like.  I don't have any idea how they open in other browsers like Firefox or Safari. I am still using Microsoft's Frontpage 2003 for my Website and it is very old software.  This blog is done through Blogger (which is Google) so the software behind the scenes is taken care of automatically and continuously by Google.  The blog pages open nice and fast.

Next Post: Getting out the camera equipment

A package from Bill: Ants and stoneflies

Bill Long sent me a package with a number of flies he'd tied, after I posted an article about Bob Meade's realistic mosquito. Bill is a fan of realistic tying and has modified/simplified a few well-known recipes to make his own realistic flies. In this package he has provided me with a few of his KISS ants and stonefly nymphs.

The ant recipe was adapted from Ed Sutryn's McMurray Ant.  In particular he has simplied its preparation by using foam cyclinders for the body.

The stonefly is a "Masterclass"-type fly which uses a similar construction to what Edwards has in his book (Oliver Edwards: Flytyiers Masterclass).  Bill has simplified Edwards' recipe and in fact skipped a step or two to speed things along. After reading one of the stories he sent to me about this fly, I think I'd call it the Up-in-a-Tree Nymph.  You'll have to wait for the full story, but the name is sort of a give-away.

There was also in the package an easy-to-tie stonefly using Swannundaze.  It's the darker nymph in the photo.

Bill sent me complete instructions and comments, as well as some good story material for these flies.  I will be using the flies and his text in the future to create one or more "Flies with a Story" for the Web site.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post a few pictures I took yesterday of these fine flies:

KISS Ant

Swannundaze nymph (left) and Golden Stone nymph (right). 

A package from Paul: 4 Rangeley style streamers

My friend Paul sent me four Rangeley style streamers to use in a photo project I am planning.  I want to use my dSLR and macro lens to make high quality photos worthy of printing large.  Making something look good on a Web site or computer monitor (displayed at 70 to 100 dots per inch) is relatively easy.  And just about any digital camera can do a wonderful job.  But when printing big at 200-300 dots per inch, it is a different story.

Anyway, I haven't started that project yet.  However, I've taken some quick hand held photos of each of Paul's flies, using a point and shoot camera, and I have displayed them below. 

Note that two of the flies, The Professor Streamer and the Grizzly King Streamer are stretched out and modified versions of old wet fly patterns, each tied by Paul on a streamer hook in the Rangeley Lake style.

Paul informed me that the four flies he sent me were tied on Mustad 3665A hooks, size 2. This model of Mustad has a 6xl shaft.

The Kennebago Special

The Professor Streamer

Grizzly King Streamer

Rapid River

Just got back from the Bear's Den Fly Fishing Expo

The Bear's Den is a big fly fishing shop in Taunton, MA.  Today was their 14th Annual Expo, held at their newer and bigger location just a couple of miles off of Rt. 495 in Taunton.  Below are a few random pictures, all taken with a Panasonic LX5 point and shoot camera I was carrying in my pocket. 

(I had hoped to use another camera I had with me to take some reasonable candid portraits, but left the batteries at home.  It's hard to explain, but it was soooo stupid a move that I didn't even get angry with myself.  It reminds me of the blog post I wrote last year about forgetting my waders at home on a supposed day-trip to the Miller's River.)

You can find all 25 images here:
http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/bearsden2012

I have posted a few of the images below:

Bob Mead's realistic mosquitoes

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I spent some time with Bob at the Marlboro Fly Fishing Show a couple of weekends ago. We talked and he allowed me to take a couple of photos of one of his realistic mosquito flies.

With the addition of these photos, I just completed an article about Bob's size 20 mosquitoes and their use in a Sarnia anti-itch lotion advertisement.  I have posted it on my Web site in the "Flies With a Story" section, here:
http://www.fishingwithflies.com/BobMeadsRealisticMosquito.htm

I hope you have time to read the article.  But if you don't, below at least are the pictures I included in the article.

Marlboro Fly Fishing Show 2012

The Fly Fishing Show appears for three days each January at the Royal Plaza in Marlborough, Massachusetts. It's not more than a 30 minute drive from my house, and I use the event as an excuse to take Friday off from work.  The doors open at 10 o'clock.  This gives me time to relax at home with a long cup of coffee or two while sitting around the fireplace in our family room, and to cook a big breakfast before heading out on the highway to Marlboro.  Ah, "so civilized a morning," as my wife would say.

I miss Charlie Collins and his rooster and hen hackles. I would think it's been at least five years since he had a booth in Marlborough. I loved the fact that he sold the neck and saddle together as one package.  And both for a price that would have been reasonable for the neck alone. Because I ended up with more hackles than I needed, I would split them down the middle with a razor blade and sell half the neck and saddle to Internet friends who did not have easy access to Charlie's hackles.  I bought my first (and only) cree rooster set from Charlie. It's pretty used up at this point.

Charlie lives in New York and the last time I checked he still sells feathers by phone or mail order (A google search provided the following: Collins Hackle Farm, 436 Kinner Hill Road, Pine City, NY 14871 Phone 607-734-1765.)  But as far as the Marlborough show, I've been told that he just didn't make enough money to justify the expense and time committment.  It seemed to me that he sold a lot of feathers at the show, but I have no idea what it costs to have table.  (Someone else told me he does go to the Somerset, NJ show, from time to time; but I don't see him on the 2012 listing of vendors at the upcoming Somerset show.) 

In recent years, what I like best is talking to old friends and meeting a few new ones.  I seem to spend most of my time around the fly tying tables.  This year, most of my talking time was with Bob Mead, Dave Brandt, Dave Benoit and Don Bastian.  I met for the first time tyer Sharon Wright from Maine.  Dave Whitlock was there with his wife, Emily, selling his gorgeous artwork, and I met both of them for the first time.  What an artist he is!  I loved his drawing called "Six Gentlemen", a photo of which I have included in my flyfishing show photo gallery.  It is six beautifully colored sunfish, one each of six varieties.

I posted 45 images from the show here:
http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/flyfishingshow2012marlborough

Below are just a few pictures, of the people I mentioned in my post.

David Brandt

Bob Mead

Don Bastian

Sharon Wright

Emily Whitlock



My fishing friend Paul DiNolo talking with Dave Whitlock

David Benoit

  

Reflections on a Serious Hobby

It's been a long while since I've seriously tied flies.  If asked, I would still list flyfishing/flytying as one of my two most serious hobbies; but it has nowhere near the intensity for me that it did 10 years ago.  This isn't a good thing or a bad thing.  Life moves along and interests change and evolve.  I feel very lucky to have had, throughout my life, interests I felt passionate about.  Usually, they involved some sort of outdoor activity and have an equipment component, with two past examples for me being backpacking and triathlons.

I remember a relationship expert saying that honeymoons last five to ten years, and that at some point it just becomes too difficult to maintain the intensity that goes along with a new relationship.  Perhaps the same is true of hobbies?

In terms of fishing "outings", I've pretty much maintained a constant interest in getting on the water.  I've never been a 100-day flyfisherman like a couple of my closest fishing buddies.  For me 20-30 days a year has always given me the balance I needed.

But other things have changed:

Though I still maintain this blog and my fishingwithflies.com website, additions are less frequent (but not inconsequential, IMO.)  Blog: I see I wrote 26 blog postings in 2011 and 25 in 2012. And there were over 4,000 visits last year. Website: Though I have only added a couple of pages this past year, because of the website having 10+ years on the world wide web, readership is still high. It numbered 60,000 visits last year.

I no longer thumb through the latest catalogs, putting "stickies" on pages with equipment or supplies I wanted to consider buying.  I have all the equipment I need or want.  I probably had all the equipment I "needed" years before I stopped buying all the equipment I "wanted".  I can't remember the last time I even flipped through a Cabelas Flyfishing Catalog. I used to love the Feather-Craft catalog, but don't even know if I still get it.  I used to speak frequently with Jim Kruel at English Angling Trappings and Chris Helm at Whitetail Flytieing [his spelling] about tying materials.

As far as fishing equipment, I have more than many and less than others.  My rod rack is full with about 8 rods and the little drawer under it has 5 reels in it.  The past several years I have used only two of the rods and two of the reels.

I am sure there have been many fly line "upgrades" over recent years and all kinds of specialized lines for all sorts of fish.  But I am perfectly happy with my classic Cortland 444 (peach colored) lines. All the smallies, largies, trout, sunfish, pickerel, perch, rock bass, fall fish, and crappies that I caught last year were perfectly happy with the distance, accuracy and color of the 444 peach!

I am amazed that I have four tying vises.  I plan to sell my Regal and Dan Vise.  That would leave me with two vises that go well beyond my skills: the LAW bench vise and the JVice.  Both were bought during more passionate times.  They are beautiful machines.

The LAW Bench Vise is a thing of beauty.  Though my skills can not match its capabilities, it is an absolute joy to use.



I can't believe all the tying materials I have.  During a three year period (ending perhaps 4 years ago) I believe my supplies increased about 10 times.  I will never use this stuff up.  But I think it is the result of fishing have many sub-hobbies.  Acquiring good tools can be a hobby all unto itself.  The same goes for the acquisition of nice materials, such as buying yet another hen neck from Charlie Collins or Denny Conrad.

Finally, I have just now broken away from writing this post for a minute...to look at my fishing bookcase (3 shelves on a wall) and to take a photo of it.  It's hard to believe that I have read all of these books.  I doubt I have looked at any of these books during the last five years.

...No, that's not true.  I have spent some time with the awesome Leeson and Schollmeyer's Benchside Reference, Hughes' Trout Flies, and Hellikson's Fish Flies.

These are all fishing books, except the several Dummies books stacked horizontally on the second shelf.

My other current "Serious Hobby" is photography.  It consumes the energy and dollars that I once applied to flyfishing.  As hobbies go, it is actually quite similar to flyfishing.  I have a photography Web site (see link in the left side-bar) which includes a blog, just like I do with flyfishing!  I might blog about the similarities some time.  In the meantime I am wondering if I should sell most of my flyfishing books to make room for all the photography books I am buying.

... No, I don't think so.  More likely, I will just build another shelf (or two or three) in my den (a.k.a.  Pete's Playroom).  I think the two hobbies live pretty well together.

Just updated my Hoppers page with two patterns from Adrian Pop

I first saw these two patterns on Adrian's fly page on Hans Weilenmann's site.  Adrian and I communicated by email (Adrian lives in Romania) and sometime in June he mailed to me these two samples.  I must appologize to Adrian for being so tardy in getting these patterns posted.

The pattern instructions can be found by going to my Hoppers page.  They are listed alphabetically under "A" so are at the top of the page.  Photos are there too, and also below:

Hopper #1

 

Hopper #2